Thursday, March 11, 2010

FORMER MAGAZINE EDITOR TO TALK 'CAREERS IN JOURNALISM,' MARCH 25

CHESTERTOWN – Bob Thompson, former editor of The Washington Post Magazine, will offer a presentation on “Careers in Journalism” at Washington College’s Rose O’Neill Literary House on Thursday, March 25, at 4:30 p.m.

Thompson spent 24 years as an award-winning writer and editor of magazine and newspaper feature stories at the Washington Post. He wrote 20 cover stories for the Washington Post Magazine and served as its editor for six years, working with writers such as David Finkel, Steve Coll, David Maraniss, Bob Woodward, and Marjorie Williams, as well as Robert Day, Adjunct Professor at Washington College.

Mr. Thompson also wrote and edited for the Post's Style section, where from 2005 to 2009 he wrote author profiles and covered the publishing industry. Born in Seattle, Thompson grew up near Boston and graduated from Stanford University with a degree in history in 1972. He served as managing editor of three now-defunct publications before becoming a senior editor at the still-surviving Inc. Magazine in 1984. Thompson took the job at the Post in 1985. In 1992, he returned to Stanford for a year on a John S. Knight journalism fellowship.

His Post Magazine pieces ranged from a profile of legendary investigative reporter Seymour Hersh, to a portrait of a young woman graduating from college in the year 2000, to a close look at what was then America's hottest computer game, “The Sims.”

Thompson’s presentation is sponsored by the Maureen Jacoby Endowment for Editing and Publishing.Admission is free and open to the public.